Without a doubt the "Martian War Machine" (as envisioned here by studio designer
Al Nozaki) rates as one of the most original designs to appear on film. Much copied by later designers, the War Machine was beautiful in its simplicity yet sinister and menacing too. It achieved its goals thoroughly, it was threatening, powerful, simple
yet totally alien.

The full size War Machine (if there were one) would be about 33 feet, wingspan 42' 6", Height 7" 1" & weight would be about 14.5 tons which made it little more than an alien "tank" in terms of size. It did not fly but rather it "walked" on three electronic beams which supported it like legs, thus remaining true to the original story while at the same time modernizing it in concept.

Although not seen in the film, it probably had a crew of three (with a 48 foot span the main body was quite small, even for creatures 3 or 4 feet high).

The Martian War Machine mounts a "heat ray" and two disintegrating batteries as main weapons. It also possesses a defensive force field capable of deflecting almost any high energy source directed against it.

It is believed that the miniatures use in the film were formed of hand beaten copper, as was the "electronic eye" that Dr. Forester captures, although none of the three original miniatures is known to survive. They were built at 1 inch to the foot scale making them 4 feet in span.

These complicated and heavy models contained electric drives for rotating, elevating and deflecting the gooseneck weapon mounted on the back as well as lighting and flashing.

They were supported by 36 wires, necessary to control as well as support them, which all had to move along a track so that they could be seen in transit across the given terrain. Only one scale of War Machine is believed to have been built.

The special effects man, Gordon Jennings, died soon after the film was made - he received a posthumous Oscar. The sound effects were also honored. One of the most unusual sounds was that of the Martian "heat-ray". Here is a quote from Cinebooks that may interest you: "…the piercing sound of the heat-ray was created by recording specific notes played on three electric guitars, then replaying this recording backward. The sounds of explosions, buildings collapsing, the meteor unscrewing, and even the Martian's scream (which was a combination of dry ice scraped across a microphone and a woman's scream played backward) were all done with skill and flair by sound recordists Harry Lindgren and Gene Garvin."

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS was a solid box office hit.

• Originally, the Martian War Machines were supposed to "walk" on visible electronic beams. This was attempted by having electrical sparks emanate from the three holes at the bottom of the machine. This was quickly abandoned for fear of it becoming a major fire hazard. The shot of the first war machine emerging from the gully has this effect. Click on the video link below to view the beams below the Alien War Machine.

Alien war machine emerging from the gully video clip

• During filming, the actors were under the impression that they were dealing with the walking tripod machines of the book. This explains the farmhouse scene when Gene Barry says, "There's a machine standing right next to us."
   

• The Flying Wing depicted in the movie is the Northrop YB-49. Two were built and both crashed. Stock footage was used in the movie.

• The Martian machines were models suspended from wires. For the final sequences where the machines "die", they are shown crashing into telegraph poles - this allowed the film makers to hide the suspension wires with the telegraph wires.
   

• This film had a budget of $2,000,000. Of that sum, $600,000 was spent on the live action scenes while $1,400,000 was spent on the extensive and elaborate special effects.
   

• Pal learned that Paramount owned the film rights to Wells' story since 1925. Cecil B. DeMille had planned to shoot it, but dropped the project before it got off the ground. Apparently, it had been turned over to the great Russian director, Sergei Eisenstein in 1930, but again, plans fell through. In the early 50s, Pal began filming, but shortly after starting, it was discovered that Paramount only owned rights for a silent film. They had to pay the author's son, Frank, a fee to film a talkie version before they could resume production
   

• Albert Nozaki based his designs of the Martian machines on the shape and movements of the swan.
   

• Reportedly, George Pal wanted to do the final third of the movie in 3-D, starting with the sequence in which the atomic bomb is used unsuccessfully against the Martians. The project was secured by Paramount in 1934. Both Cecil B. DeMille and Alfred Hitchcock (I) were considered for directors. Orson Welles, who rose to prominence with his "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast of Halloween, 1938, was pressured into making this his first feature film, but he wanted no part of it. Filming was halted briefly, two days into filming, when Paramount discovered their filming rights to the novel had expired. It was quickly resolved through the kind permission of H.G. Wells's estate.
   

• While all machines were fitted with rotating cobra necks, only one machine was equipped to also raise and lower it's neck .
   

• The Martian war machine that lowers it's scanning electronic eye only one of the three machines models was outfitted to perform this operation.